The Perfect Weapon Epilogue 1 part 10
Leaping down, she fell into his arms. Touching his mouth, she whispered, “You have a great smile, Dad. I like seeing it so much these days.” Stepping away, she wandered over to the corner to prowl through the tool box. Nia walked over and grabbed Sydney’s hand to see the ring. Smiling, she hugged her friend and then went up the ladder to check on the progress.
“Gee, don’t remember the rabbit catching Alice when she fell into the hole.” Weiss quipped from his vantage point in the doorway, standing next to Vaughn.
“Well, I’ve got the ears for it,” Jack said self-deprecatingly.
“Don’t tell Sydney, but so does she,” Vaughn whispered.
“You know, Dad, if you don’t like your ears, just grow your hair a little longer. You have great hair. Wish I’d inherited that. Instead of your ears. Right. Vaughn?”
“You are in such deep shit, you might want to jump up on the roof right now, boy,” Jack said, with a smile. “Oh and by the way, Sydney said she doesn’t think the tool you gave her is big enough for the job.”
“Whaaaat?!”
“Don’t squeal. I’ve told you that it’s unbecoming in a man.” Jack laughed as Vaughn climbed back up the ladder to the roof.
“Weiss clambered up as well, laughing, as he said in a high voice, “Vaughn, honey, your tool is just not big enough for my job.”
“You, my former friend, can find yourself flying back down through that hole and I don’t think Jack’s gonna catch you.”
“Well, Michael,” Nia said from the roof top, making Vaughn jump. “I hardly think it’s mature of you to take out your feelings of inadequacy…on your taller friends.”
“Why don’t you all start to clean up any extraneous materials? We should take a break to eat,” Jack suggested.
Kendall quickly called out an agreement.
“You know Kendall,” Dixon said. “You are the perfect supervisor.”
“Why thank you, Dixon. I’m glad that you finally see the light.”
“Well, the glare of the sun on that chrome is enough to light up downtown LA,” Carrie whispered to Marshall, making him laugh.
“Why yes, Kendall,” Jack called out, seeing where Dixon was going. “The perfect supervisor is the person who prefers to watch others do all the work, rather than doing work on their own. So…do you think you can actually bend over and start picking up some of the tools? Unless, of course, you’ve got one stuck up
your---“ He stopped when everyone began to laugh.
Judy told him that she would supervise the kitchen detail while he talked with Sydney.
“Talked with me about what?”
“I just wanted to show you something in your hope chest. I…think you need to start recovering more of your memories now that you’ve reached a new chapter in your life. I think it’s time.”
“If…you think so.”
”I do. Trust me.
Sydney nodded and the two of them went to her room. In the room, Sydney twirled around and laughed. “This is so great, Dad. But I’m thinking that given Vaughn’s track record he may be the one sleeping over here when I kick him out.”
“Well, that couch is a sleeper sofa.” Jack laughed. “That was my idea. We all know he’s going to screw up from time to time and you’ll keep him on his toes.”
Sydney approached the chest where her father stood waiting. Staring at it, she bit her lip.
“It’s not Pandora’s box of pestilence, sweetheart. It’s your past.” He started at her intently. Sometimes she seemed eager, sometimes cautious about the chest. “But we don’t have to do it. We don’t have to open it ever again if you don’t want. Your choice.”
“Can you do it, Dad? Open it. Pick something.”
“Sure.” Opening the lid, he rummaged around for a second, trying to decide what to show her first. With a small smile, he finally handed her a small stuffed black and white pig.
”Pp..p…Piggy!” She exclaimed. “Piggy…Oh…Piggy.” She grabbed it from her father and hugged it to her chest. “I…forgot about him. But…wait, after Mom left, I didn’t like him anymore. I don’t know why.” She started at the stuffed animal, wondering. She had loved that black and white pug. Why had she turned against it?”
“It was because of this…” Jack said and gently taking the pig from Sydney, turned the pig over onto it’s back. He ran his index finger down the seam. “See….The Agency team that cleared out house looking for evidence against Irina, against me of course although I didn’t yet know that, took a personal vendetta against us for the deaths of fellow agents. And they…ransacked out house, even your room. Everywhere…a mess-“ They both winced and looked upward as they heard a crash and Vaughn’s creative multilingual cursing coming from the roof overhead.
“I’m hoping that wasn’t too big of a mess,” Sydney muttered, looking upward and rolling her eyes. Vaughn wasn’t going to allow Weiss to cut a hole in her father’s roof was he? Some supervision might be in order. “Maybe we ought to hurry,” Sydney suggested.
“There’s no rush. Nia is up there now. She has it all under control.”
“But dinner?”
“Judy will wait for us to eat.” He looked at her. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. I just…I guess one part of me wants to know, but I can tell this is a difficult story for you, so…I’m trying to avoid it. I’m sorry.”
“I…Good call. It’s a hard story. Seeing the…mess of out home that day. The team made a mess. A destructive mess. Actually it was more like vandalism. And among other…crimes, they slit open Piggy. I remember …I was so angry. Beyond angry. Furious. Nearly incandescent with rage that they had touched your room like that. And I had you stay at Emily’s that night and for several nights while I put the house back together. Or tried to. And even though I did my best…” he ran his finger along the seam and she bent forward.
Her eyes began to fill with tears as she saw the small stitches that held the pig together. “You did a good job, Dad. Nice even stitches.”
“I guess suturing fellow agents over the years came in handy,” he said deprecatingly. “But even still, you could didn’t want Piggy anymore. You could tell that Piggy had been hurt because I…didn’t do a very good job.”
“What? He looks fine to me,” she said, sniffling, as she held Piggy to her once again.
“I…had to buy new stuffing and I don’t think I stuffed him properly. He looked a little lumpy.”
“Maybe the years have smoothed him out then, because he looks perfect to me,” Sydney said, looking down at her old friend. She held the pig up to her face and kissed that line of stitches, thinking as a tear traced it’s way down her cheek, of her father sitting up late at night, with those big hands of his, carefully restitching her Piggy, her black and white pig, trying to repair her life for her, make it…black and white again. Just as he had done for so many years, keeping the secret of her mother’s treachery from her so she did not have to live in that grey world he had inhibited for so long.
She look up as her father cupped her wet cheek in one hand, asked, “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
“Yes. I’m…good. Can I take Piggy with me?” She lifted the soft animal to her face and used it to wipe away her tears.
“Of course, of course, all of this is yours.”
“Dad. Thank you for the…stitches.”
“You’re welcome. That’s what I’m here for,” he said, taking her by the hand and leading her downstairs.
Seeing everyone in the kitchen munching on snacks, Sydney out her head on her father’s shoulder. “So what if it’s a little lumpy, our lives? But the new stuffing will work just fine.”
Vaughn looked up and smiled. “Syd - are you okay?” What was she doing with that stuffed pig? He wondered as she pattered her father on the arm and moved toward her fiancé.
Judy looked at Jack carefully and relaxed when he nodded. Walking toward her, he took the big of chips and asked, “Where are we eating tonight? The table?” He grinned.
“No,” Susan said. “We don’t want to put any more scratches on that table.”
“I don’t think we put any scratches on that table, Suse,” Weiss said, confused. “I thought the scratches were already there when we---“
“It’s Judy and Jack’s table to make scratches in,” Susan said quietly, although her eyes danced merrily as Judy rolled hers.
“Do you need help, Judy?” Nia asked, coming in from the rooftop. Walking over to the sink, she washed her hands of the dirt on them.
“Oh, sure, let me help too with those sandwiches,” Sydney offered and put the pig down and on the counter. Walking over toward the counter where the food was laid out, she swung around as Weiss came over and began to curiously pick up the stuffed animal.
“Don’t. Touch. The. Pig!” Sydney exclaimed. With a fast movement, she darted back, reached out and grabbed the pig and slammed it into Vaughn’s chest. “Protect the pig while I help with dinner.”
“Aye, aye, my captain. I will protect the pig with my life…” Vaughn began to salute then trailed off when Sydney sent him a glare that looked far too much like Jack’s for comfort. Wait, Vaughn thought. He had decided he wanted boys. Trucks, not Barbies. Matchbox cars not, barrettes. Hockey not, ballet. But… what if they had boys and they were like Jack? What if he looked into his son’s face one day and saw Jack? That would be…No. That would not happen. Nope. He squeezed the pig a little too hard and carefully put it down. If the stuffing popped out of that pig he was a dead man, he could tell. He’d be sleeping on that sofa in Sydney’s room upstairs for sure.
Marshall came in carrying a tool and then stopped as he saw the pig. Walking over to it, he reached his hand up to pat it, saying, “Oh, it’s a cute pig. Did you know that---“
“Don’t touch the pig!” everyone called out.
Marshall jumped back. “Ookay. Not gonna touch the pig. We all have out…little issues. Now, mine I do not, do not like it when anyone touches my---“
“Well, that might explain the reason why it took so long---“ Kendall began and then sucked in a breath when Jack slammed a friendly slap on his back.
“Marshall,” Carrie said as she picked up paper plates, “What is that tool in your hand?”
Nia whispered to Vaughn. “My word, for a short man, Marshall certainly has a big tool. No wonder you have inadequacy issues.” Vaughn rolled his eyes. Perhaps the way to handle Nia was to ignore her. Responding to her was surely positive reinforcement. Yes, that was the way to go. He picked up some food and followed Carrie into the living room.
Marshall explained as everyone began to gather items for dinner and situated themselves on the floor of the living room , “Well, I brought this new paint rollering device for us to try-“
“Rollering’s not a word,” Jack interrupted to point out. Everyone but Susan and Sydney rolled their eyes.
“I believe I am going to patent it under that name, so it will become a word.”
“Well, not technically,” Susan began.
Sydney added as she put the pig down next to her as she sat down, “A trade or brand name is not truly a word. No matter how much common usage it might have it’s not a word until---“
“It’s in the Oxford English Dictionary,” Jack finished. “True. After all, for example, Xeroxing is not really a word. Susan---“
“Jack…you can talk about this later. Susan can look it up in her OED, okay?” Let Marshall continue,” Judy suggested, rubbing his bare arm to get his attention. He looked down and shut up.
“Susan,” Vaughn asked, turning to look at the pig curiously. What was there about that pig? Starting to pick it up, her was startled when Sydney slapped his hand and grabbed the stuffed animal.
“Don’t. Touch. The Pig,” she snarled. “I already told you that.”
“Oookay.” Turning away, he rolled his eyes as Weiss looked art him curiously. ”Susan.… Something I’ve been curious about. How did you go from an English teacher to wanting to be therapist, a psychologist? They seem so different.”
“They’re both about, in some ways, words, aren’t they?” Susan suggested. “The power of words.”
Sydney nodded and looked over at her father and Judy talking, as usual. As always. Words. And emotions. What had been, she wondered, in that note that had made him leave the Op Center after reading them? And right now…what words was Judy saying that was making her father look like he had hit the jackpot?
Part 11